Titanic: The Official Story - April 14-15, 1912

Front/Top of Titanic: The Official Story - April 14-15, 1912

Front/Top of Titanic: The Official Story - April 14-15, 1912. GGA Image ID # 104f6157c4

Join the Titanic's fateful voyage with this remarkable collection or authoritative historical documents

Ever since the "unsinkable" Titanic went to its grave over eighty years ago, hundreds of books, movies, and even a Broadway musical have tried to recreate the fateful night, sometimes with little regard for the historical record.

Now, with the publication of Titanic: The Official Story, the voice of history, at last, speaks to us from across the decades. This particular box contains reproductions of eighteen documents that look and feel remarkably like the originals in London's famed Public Record Office.

It includes a copy of the original deck plans from the archives of the shipbuilders Harland and Wolff; the Titanic's final, desperate telegrams; an eyewitness account by one of the survivors, certificates issued by the Board of Trade prior to the ship's maiden voyage; findings of the Parliament and Senate investigation, and thirteen other remarkable records that will make history unfold in your hands.

Back/Bottom of Titanic: The Official Story - April 14-15, 1912

Back/Bottom of Titanic: The Official Story - April 14-15, 1912. GGA Image ID # 104f9c1d42

Over one hundred remarkable pages of correspondence, government certificates, and contemporary records that look just like the originals!

Contents Include:

  • The Titanic's deck plans, reproduced from the original Harland and Wolff construction drawings
  • The Titanic's final telegram— a terse, desperation-filled plea for help sent during the early morning hours of April 15. 1912
  • The New York Evening Journal's front-page editorial, the day after the Titanic, sank, excoriating the White Star Line for “criminal carelessness”
  • A passenger’s account of his frantic escape from the sinking ship, as recounted to the Commission of Enquiry
  • A remarkable photograph of a Titanic survivor being plucked from the sea by the SS Carpathia
  • The certificate, dated a month before the disaster, that slates with chilling clarity that the Titanic had only enough lifeboats to hold 1,178 people— although it was certified to carry over 3.000 passengers and crew

All documents reproduced in facsimilie from the Archives of the Public Record Office in London.

A Guide to the Contents of This Box

Included in Titanic: The Official Story is a 15- page guide booklet that provides the brief history of the RMS Titanic and a listing with historical context of the following items;

  1. Transcript of Register for Transmission to Registrar-General of Shipping and Seamen
  2. Report of Survey of an Emigrant Ship - Form Surveys 27 M 23780
  3. Certificates of Clearance of an Emigrant Ship - Form Surveys 32
  4. Deck Plan of the Titanic showing deck accommodations - Harland and Wolff
  5. Report of the British Commission of Enquiry into the loss of the TItanic
  6. Telegram sent to the SS Birma by the RMS Titanic as she sank
  7. Correspondence from the White Star Line to the Board of Trade concerning the loss of the Titanic
  8. The reponse of the popular press - "The Titanic Crime" - editorial in the New York Evening Journal
  9. The response of the union leader - letter from the Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Workers' Union
  10. The politician's resonse - notice of a Parliamentary Question to the President of the Board of Trade
  11. Sample of returns of passengers drowned - First, Second, and Third Class
  12. Alfred Omont's account of his escape from the Titanic - statement of evidence to the British Commission of Enquiry
  13. Digest of Testimony given at a hearing into the loss of the Titanic before a Sub-committee of the Committee on Commerce of the United States Senate
  14. Report on the Senate Committee enquiry report into the loss of the Titanic
  15. Copy of a letter from Stanley Lloyd, Captain of the SS Californian, to the Board of Trade
  16. Statement of Claim and Verdict in the case of Ryan v. the Oceanic Steam Navigation Co. Ltd.
  17. Letter to the Board of Trade from the General Manager of the White Star Line concerning films on the sinking of the SS Titanic
  18. Photograph of a survivor from the Titanic

Publication Information

  • Publisher: Random House, Inc.
  • Publication Date: December 1997
  • ISBN-10: 0375501150
  • ISBN-13: 978-0375501159
  • Box Dimensions: 9 x 0.8 x 14 inches
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